The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 63

Stamens about 24, borne on the margin of the calyx in one row, all alike; filaments very long, thickened at the top (white). Styles 2, slender. Capsule cohering with the base of the calyx, 2-lobed, 2-celled, with a single bony seed in each cell.--A low shrub; the oval or obovate leaves smooth, or h.o.a.ry underneath, toothed at the summit; the flowers appearing rather before the leaves, each partly covered by a scale-like bract. (Dedicated to the distinguished _Dr. John Fothergill_.)

1. F. Gardeni, L. (F. alnifolia, _L. f._)--Low grounds, Va. to N. C.

April, May.

3. LIQUIDaMBAR, L. SWEET-GUM TREE.

Flowers usually moncious, in globular heads or catkins; the sterile arranged in a conical cl.u.s.ter, naked; stamens very numerous, intermixed with minute scales; filaments short. Fertile flowers consisting of many 2-celled 2-beaked ovaries, subtended by minute scales in place of a calyx, all more or less cohering together and hardening in fruit, forming a spherical catkin or head; the capsules opening between the 2 awl-shaped beaks. Styles 2, stigmatic down the inner side. Ovules many, but only one or two perfecting. Seeds with a wing-angled seed-coat.--Catkins racemed, nodding, in the bud enclosed by a 4-leaved deciduous involucre. (A mongrel name, from _liquidus_, fluid, and the Arabic _ambar_, amber; in allusion to the fragrant terebinthine juice which exudes from the tree.)

1. L. Styraciflua, L. (SWEET GUM. BILSTED.) Leaves rounded, deeply 5--7-lobed, smooth and s.h.i.+ning, glandular-serrate, the lobes pointed.--Moist woods, from Conn. to S. Ill., and south to Fla. and Tex.

April.--A large and beautiful tree, with fine-grained wood, the gray bark commonly with corky ridges on the branchlets. Leaves fragrant when bruised, turning deep crimson in autumn. The woody pods filled mostly with abortive seeds, resembling sawdust.

ORDER 39. HALORaGEae. (WATER-MILFOIL FAMILY.)

_Aquatic or marsh plants (at least in northern countries), with the inconspicuous symmetrical_ (perfect or unis.e.xual) _flowers sessile in the axils of leaves or bracts, calyx-tube coherent with the ovary_ (or calyx and corolla wanting in Callitriche), _which consists of 2--4 more or less united carpels_ (or in Hippuris of only one carpel), _the styles or sessile stigmas distinct_. Limb of the calyx obsolete or very short in fertile flowers. Petals small or none. Stamens 1--8. Fruit indehiscent, 1--4-celled, with a single anatropous seed suspended from the summit of each cell. Embryo in the axis of fleshy alb.u.men; cotyledons minute.

1. Myriophyllum. Flowers moncious or polygamous, the parts in fours, with or without petals. Stamens 4 or 8. Leaves often whorled, the immersed pinnately dissected.

2. Proserpinaca. Flowers perfect, the parts in threes. Petals none.

Leaves alternate, the immersed pinnately dissected.

3. Hippuris. Flowers usually perfect. Petals none. Stamen, style, and cell of the ovary only one. Leaves entire, in whorls.

4. Callitriche. Flowers moncious. Calyx and petals none. Stamen 1.

Ovary 4-celled, with 2 filiform styles. Leaves entire, opposite.

1. MYRIOPHLLUM, Vaill. WATER-MILFOIL.

Flowers moncious or polygamous. Calyx of the sterile flowers 4-parted, of the fertile 4-toothed. Petals 4, or none. Stamens 4--8. Fruit nut-like, 4-celled, deeply 4-lobed; stigmas 4, recurved.--Perennial aquatics. Leaves crowded, often whorled; those under water pinnately parted into capillary divisions. Flowers sessile in the axils of the upper leaves, usually above water in summer; the uppermost staminate.

(Name from ?????, _a thousand_, and f?????, _a leaf_, i.e., Milfoil.)

[*] _Stamens 8; petals deciduous; carpels even; leaves whorled in threes or fours._

1. M. spicatum, L. Leaves all pinnately parted and capillary, except the _floral ones or bracts_; these _ovate, entire or toothed, and chiefly shorter than the flowers_, which thus form an interrupted spike.--Deep water, Newf. to N. Eng. and N. Y., west to Minn., Ark., and the Pacific. (Eu.)

2. M. verticillatum, L. _Floral leaves much longer than the flowers, pectinate-pinnatifid_; otherwise nearly as n. 1.--Ponds, etc., common.

(Eu.)

[*][*] _Stamens 4; petals rather persistent; carpels 1--2-ridged and roughened on the back; leaves whorled in fours and fives, the lower with capillary divisions._

3. M. heterophllum, Michx. Stem stout; _floral leaves ovate and lanceolate_, thick, crowded, sharply serrate, the lowest pinnatifid; _fruit obscurely roughened._--Lakes and rivers, Ont. and N. Y. to Fla., west to Minn. and Tex.

4. M. scabratum, Michx. Stem rather slender; lower leaves pinnately parted with few capillary divisions; _floral leaves linear_ (rarely scattered), _pectinate-toothed or cut-serrate; carpels strongly 2-ridged and roughened on the back_.--Shallow ponds, S. New Eng. to S. C., west to Mo. and La.

[*][*][*] _Stamens 4; petals rather persistent; carpels even on the back, leaves chiefly scattered, or wanting on the flowering stems._

5. M. ambiguum, Nutt. _Immersed leaves pinnately parted_ into about 10 very delicate capillary divisions; _the emerging ones pectinate, or the upper floral linear_ and sparingly toothed or entire; _flowers mostly perfect_; fruit (minute) smooth.--Ponds and ditches, Ma.s.s. to N. J. and Penn.; also in Ind.--Var. CAPILLaCEUM, Torr. & Gray, has stems floating, long and very slender, and leaves all immersed and capillary.

Var. LIMSUM, Torr., is small, rooting in the mud, with leaves all linear, incised, toothed, or entire.

6. M. tenellum, Bigelow. _Flowering stems nearly leafless and scape-like_ (3--10' high), erect, simple; the sterile shoots creeping and tufted, bracts small, entire; _flowers alternate, moncious_; fruit smooth.--Borders of ponds, Newf. to N. Eng., west to Mich.

2. PROSERPINaCA, L. MERMAID-WEED.

Flowers perfect. Calyx-tube 3-sided, the limb 3-parted. Petals none.

Stamens 3. Stigmas 3, cylindrical. Fruit bony, 3-angled, 3-celled, 3-seeded, nut-like.--Low, perennial herbs, with the stems creeping at base, alternate leaves, and small flowers sessile in the axils, solitary or 3--4 together, in summer. (Name applied by Pliny to a Polygonum, meaning _pertaining to Proserpine_.)

1. P. pal.u.s.tris, L. _Leaves lanceolate, sharply serrate_, the lower pectinate when under water; fruit sharply angled.--Wet swamps, N. Eng.

to Fla., west to Minn. and Tex.

2. P. pectinacea, Lam. _Leaves all pectinate_, the divisions linear-awl-shaped; fruit rather obtusely angled.--Sandy swamps, near the coast, Ma.s.s. to Fla. and La.

3. HIPPuRIS, L. MARE'S TAIL.

Flowers perfect or polygamous. Calyx entire. Petals none. Stamen one, inserted on the edge of the calyx. Style single, thread-shaped, stigmatic down one side, received in the groove between the lobes of the large anther. Fruit nut-like, 1-celled, 1-seeded.--Perennial aquatics, with simple entire leaves in whorls, and minute flowers sessile in the axils in summer. (Name from ?pp?? _a horse_, and ????, _a tail_.)

1. H. vulgaris, L. Stems simple (1--2 high); leaves in whorls of 8 or 12, linear, acute; fruit nearly 1" long.--Ponds and springs, Penn. to Ind. and Minn., and northward. (Eu.)

4. CALLiTRICHE, L. WATER-STARWORT.

Flowers moncious, solitary or 2 or 3 together in the axil of the same leaf, wholly naked or between a pair of membranaceous bracts. Sterile flower a single stamen; filament bearing a heart-shaped 4-celled anther, which by confluence becomes 1-celled, and opens by a single slit.

Fertile flower a single 4-celled ovary, either sessile or pedicelled, bearing 2 distinct and filiform sessile, usually persistent stigmas.

Fruit nut-like, compressed, 4-lobed, 4-celled, separating at maturity into as many closed 1-seeded portions. Seed pendulous, filling the cell; embryo slender, straight or slightly curved, nearly the length of the oily alb.u.men.--Low, slender and usually tufted, glabrous, or beset with minute (microscopic) stellate scales, with spatulate or linear entire leaves, both forms of leaves often occurring on the same stem. (Name from ?a???, _beautiful_, and ????, _hair_, from the often almost capillary stems.)

[*] _Small annuals, forming tufts on moist soil, dest.i.tute of stellate scales; leaves uniform, very small, obovate or oblanceolate, 3-nerved, crowded; bracts none._

1. C. deflexa, Braun. var. Austni, Hegelm. Stems --1' high; fruit small ({1/3}" broad), broader than high, deeply notched above and below, on a pedicel often nearly of its own length or nearly sessile; lobes of the fruit narrowly winged and with a deep groove between them; persistent stigmas shorter than the fruit, spreading or reflexed; leaves 1--2" long. (C. Austini, _Engelm_)--On damp soil, N. Y. and N. J. to Ill., Mo., and Tex. (S. Am.)

[*][*] _Amphibious perennials; leaves with stellate scales, the floating ones obovate and 3-nerved, the submersed linear (all uniform and narrow in terrestrial forms) flowers usually between a pair of bracts._

2. C. verna, L. Fruit (" long) higher than broad, obovate, slightly obcordate, usually thickest at the base, sessile, its lobes sharply keeled or very narrowly winged above, and with a wide groove between them; stigmas shorter than the fruit, almost erect, usually deciduous; floating leaves crowded in a tuft, obovate, narrowed into a petiole.--Common in stagnant waters, Penn. and N. J. to Fla., west to Minn., Tex., and the Pacific. (Eu.)

3. C. heterophlla, Pursh. Fruit smaller, as broad or broader than high, deeply emarginate, thick, almost ventricose, sessile or nearly so, its lobes obtusely angled, with a small groove between them; stigmas as long as the fruit, erect, persistent; floating leaves crowded in a tuft, broadly spatulate, often retuse, abruptly narrowed into a long petiole.--Stagnant water, N. Y. and N. J. to S. Ind. and Mo.

[*][*][*] _Submersed perennial, with numerous uniform linear 1-nerved leaves; flowers without bracts; carpels separate nearly to the axis._

4 C. autumnalis, L. Stems 3--6' high; fruit large (1" wide or more), flattened, circular, deeply and narrowly notched, sessile or nearly so, its lobes broadly winged, and with a very deep and narrow groove between them; stigmas very long, reflexed, deciduous; leaves all linear from a broader base, retuse or notched at the tip (2--6" long).--W. Ma.s.s., Lake Champlain and N. New York, Lake Superior, and westward. (Eu.)

ORDER 40. MELASTOMaCEae. (MELASTOMA FAMILY.)

_Plants with opposite 3--7-ribbed leaves, and definite stamens, the anthers opening by pores at the apex; otherwise much as in the_ Onagraceae.--All tropical, except the genus

1. RHeXIA, L. DEER-GRa.s.s. MEADOW-BEAUTY.